How do you boil maple sap to make maple syrup?
You need a large pan and a heat source for boiling down the sap. The size of the pan and the heat source will depend on the amount of sap to be processed. At a minimum, however, the pan should be at least 6, and preferably 8, inches deep to prevent boiling over. If possible, boiling should be done outside the house, or some method should be available to vent the steam outside the house. Steam given off during boiling carries small amounts of sap and syrup that can make surfaces very sticky. Sap is made into syrup by boiling off water, which increases the sugar content to 66 percent and causes chemical changes that darken the syrup and provide its characteristic taste. The more sugar content in sap, the more syrup you get. To avoid burning or scorching, monitor the heat carefully. More sap is added as water evaporates until a suitable amount of concentrated sap is present. The evaporation process is then continued with no additional sap and the entire batch is “finished” to the desired
